Organising a creative, adventurous and contented life

May 2014

21/05/2014

One of my favourite organising activities is to look in a shelf, drawer, or cupboard and ask this question of every item.

Do I use it?

If I use the item frequently or even occasionally, it can stay. If the answer is rarely, I'll take the item out for storage, donation, or tossing. If the item is beautiful or has special meaning, that's another reason to let it stay—but better for things to be both beautiful and useful.

It's extremely satisfying to realise that everything in an area is used. I enjoy opening my bathroom drawer, for example, because I know every single item in there is used regularly, most daily.

Have you tried this approach? If you haven't, choose an area and work through it until only frequently used possessions remain. Notice how much easier it is to get to things and how functional the space becomes! You can then work slowly outwards to other areas of your house.